THE  METHOD  OF  MANUFACTURE 


OF  SEVERAL  ARTICLES 


FORMER  INDIANS  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA. 


BY  PAUL  SCHUMACHER. 


From    the   Eleventh   Annual   Report  of  the   Pe;il>or1y   Museum  of  Archeology   and 
Ethnology.    Cambridge.     l^Ts.j 


/y  Y/  /  / 


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THE  METHOD  OF  MANUFACTURE 

OF  SEVERAL  ARTICLES 

BY  THE 

FORMER  INDIANS  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA. 


BY  PAUL  SCHUMACHER. 


[From  the  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Archaeology  and 
Ethnology.    Cambridge.    1878.] 


Bancroft  Library 

7  25  o^ 


THE   METHOD   OF  MANUFACTURE   OF  SEVERAL  ARTICLES  BY 
THE   FORMER  INDIANS   OF   SOUTHERN   CALIFORNIA. 


PAUL  SCHUMACHER. 


I.   THE  STONE  POT,  OR  Olla. 

IN  my  investigations  among  the  remains  of  the  aborigines  of 
the  Pacific  coast,  south  of  San  Francisco,  I  was  always  rewarded 
by  finding  the  olla,1  one  of  the  most  beautiful  utensils  of  genuine 
aboriginal  workmanship.  The  pot  is  usually  of  globular  form  with 
a  narrow  opening  on  the  top,  sometimes  pear-shaped,  and  others  of 
the  Mexican  form  with  a  wide  opening.  Illustrations  of  the  main 


Cooking  Pot  of  Steatite,  Dos  Pueblos,  Cal.    P.  M.  No.  9202.    \  diameter. 

t}-pes  are  found  in  Bancroft's  "Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States," 
Vol.  IV,  page  693,  from  my  own  drawings ;  and  in  Rail's  "Archae- 

1  Olla,  Mexican  pronunciation  6ya,  from  the  Latin  olla.  pot. 

(258) 


259 

ological  Collection  of  the  National  Museum,"  page  36,  from  col 
lections  made  by  me  two  years  ago.  [Figures  1  and  2  represent 
two  common  forms  of  these  pots,  drawn  from  specimens  in  the 
Peabody  Museum,  collected  by  Mr.  Schumacher. — F.  W.  P.] 


The  stone  of  which  this  utensil  for  culinary  purposes,  and  some 
other  articles  of  our  Indians,  were  worked  out,  has  been  well 
known  and  in  use  for  like  purposes  since  the  classic  times  of 
Thcophrastus  and  Pliny.  The  Magnesian  stone 


260 

and  the  kind  quarried  at  Siphmis  and  Comum  —  the  lapis  ollaris  of 
a  later  period  —  of  which,  in  ancient  times,  vessels  were  hollowed 
out  in  the  turning  lathe,  and  carved,  coincide  in  nature  and  com 
position  with  the  potstone  of  our  Indians.  The  stone  is  steatite, 
and  is  usually  of  a  greenish  gray  color,  sometimes  showing  hex 
agonal  prisms  in  stellated  groups,  with  pearly  lustre  and  greasy 
touch,  especially  when  reduced  to  powder.  It  changes  in  some 
portions  of  the  same  ledge  into  a  more  flaky  and  micaceous  char 
acter  ;  while  in  neighboring  deposits  on  Santa  Catalina  Island,  it 
exists  crystallized  in  stellated  groups  of  well-developed  hexagonal 
needles  of  glistening  apple  color,  which  are  easily  detached  from 
the  weathered  surface.  The  living  rock  is  not  as  bright  or  shining 
as  are  the  fragments  of  pots  that  have  been  exposed  to  heat ;  it 
loses  its  greasy  character  the  more  a  utensil  has  thus  been  in  use, 
and  the  color  is  changed  to  a  bright  metallic  lead  color.  Some 
years  ago  I  showed  a  potsherd,  the  color  of  which  had  thus  been 
changed  by  fire,  to  a  mineralogist,  who  pronounced  it  Magnesian 
mica. 

The  first  information  I  gained  of  the  locality  of  quarries  of  pot- 
stone,  or  where  pots  were  made,  was  from  a  venerable  Spanish 
lady  while  exhuming  in  Nipomo  rancho,  San  Luis  Obispo  county, 
in  the  spring  of  1874.  She  recollected  a  narrative  of  her  mother, 
according  to  which  the  Indians  had  brought  ollas  in  canoe-loads 
from  the  islands  in  Santa  Barbara  channel  to  the  mainland,  which 
they  exchanged  for  such  necessities  as  the  islanders  were  in  want 
of.  Two  years  later,  in  Santa  Barbara  county,  I  received  similar 
information  from  an  old  Mexican,  then  my  guide.  While  making 
researches  among  the  islands,  at  the  joint  expense  of  the  Smith 
sonian  Institution  and  the  Peabody  Museum,2  I  gained  the  assur 
ance,  during  my  short  stay  on  Santa  Catalina,  that  the  stone  exists 
in  certain  places  on  that  island,  but  did  not  then  succeed  in  finding 
the  quarries.  But  during  my  last  expedition  to  that  locality,  in 
behalf  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  and  of  which  an  outline  is  given 
in  my  prefixed  letter,  I  made  .the  discovery,  found  pits  and  quarries, 
the  tools  used  and  unfinished  articles.  I  noticed  that  the  softer 
stone,  usually  obtained  in  pits,  which  is  of  a  more  micaceous  char 
acter,  was  used  for  pots,  while  the  close-grained  rock  of  darker 

2 "Researches  in  the  Kjokkenmoddings  of  the  coast  of  Oregon,  and  of  the  Santa 
Barbara  Islands  and  the  adjacent  mainland."  Hayden's  Geog.  and  Geol.  Survey, 
Bulletin,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  1. 


261 

color,  serpentine,  was  mainly  used  for  the  weights  of  digging  sticks, 
cups,  pipes,  ornaments,  etc. 

While  in  camp  at  Little  Springs,  my  attention  was  first  arrested 
by  a  small  mound  of  silvery  hue,  which  same  hue  also  extended  over 
the  adjoining  ground.  The  mound  is  in  front  of  a  large  outcrop 
ping  rock  of  potstone,  which  I  found  to  be  an  impressive  witness 
of  the  tedious  labors  of  the  aborigines,  it  being  entirely  covered 
with  marks  where  pot-forms  had  been  worked  out  or  left  in  various 
stages ;  some  even  were  only  begun  and  abandoned,  while  others 
were  nearly  \vorked  out  in  rough  outlines  but  still  united  with  the 
living  rock.  At  the  foot  of  the  bluff  is  a  burrow  in  which,  and 
among  the  debris  forming  the  mound,  many  potsherds,  a  broken 
pot  of  which  the  outside  had  already  been  well  worked,  and  even 
the  hollow  started,  and  a  pot-form  as  broken  from  the  mother  rock, 
were  brought  to  light,  with  many  tools  of  hard  slate  in  shape  of 
chisels,  and  scrapers  of  quartz. 

From  the  Little  Springs  we  followed  the  canon  to  the  northward, 
and  crossed  the  pass,  easy  of  access  from  this  side,  into  Pots 
Valley.  It  is  a  wide  hollow  canon  in  which  potstone,  silicious 
slate  and  "float "-quartz  are  found  abundantly.  The  potstone  is 
found  especially  below  the  small  spring,  which  makes  out  near  the 
base  of  a  very  conspicuous,  isolated,  large  rock,  which  stands 
nearly  in  the  centre  of  the  valley ;  while  the  slate,  of  which  the 
chisels  are  made,  crops  out  boldly,  higher  up,  near  the  pass. 
Several  hundred  yards  below  the  spring  at  the  ravine  to  the  right, 
going  down,  is  found  a  pit;  and  the  ledge  of  potstone  close  by 
forms  a  face  in  the  ravine,  which  shows  the  same  marks  of  the 
chisel  as  at  Little  Springs.  About  eight  distinct  marks  cover  the 
lower  face,  while  others  are  obliterated  by  subsequent  mining. 
One,  having  only  been  commenced,  shows  the  outlines  of  a  pot- 
form  in  a  circle  worked  to  a  depth  of  only  an  inch,  and  measures 
sixteen  inches  in  diameter.  Between  this  place  and  the  second 
ravine  about  fifty  yards  to  the  northwestward,  is  another  pit  of 
larger  dimension  —  about  fifteen  feet  in  diameter  and  still  five  feet 
deep  —  where,  too,  among  the  debris,  potsherds  and  quantities  of 
slate  fragments  and  quartz  are  found,  some  of  which  had  evidently 
been  used  in  working  the  mine,  and  making  the  pots.  Besides 
these  places  there  are  many  more  pits  in  the  valley,  and  a  quarry 
especially  prominent  about  four  hundred  yards  to  the  eastward 
from  Pots  Valley  boat  landing,  close  to  the  steep  ocean  shore.  In 


262 


Fig.  3. 


fact,  on  entering  the  canon  by  the  pass,  as  we  did,  whenthe  grand 
rock  near  the  spring,  the  lesser  cliffs  and  the  scattered  boulders  can 
be  overseen,  I  was  struck,  on  examining  the  locality  through  a  field- 
glass,  by  the  discovery  of  so  many  silver  lined  mounds,  the  debris 

of  pits,  the  rock  quarries  and  open  air 
workshops,  so  that  I  believed  I  had 
found  the  main  factory  of  the  ollas  of 
the  California  aborigines.  Even  those 
not  interested  in  aboriginal  remains  can 
not  fail  to  notice  the  manufacturing  pro 
pensities  of  the  people  that  formerly 
roamed  here,  and  the  locality  was  ap 
propriately  named.  tiaOCTOtt  *- 
In  examining  the  slate  quarry  I  found 

Fig.  4. 


Rude  Chisel  of  Slate  used  in  making 

the  steatite  pots.     P.  M.  No.  13411. 

4  diameter. 


Rude  Scraper  of  Quartz,  used  in  mak 
ing  steatite  pots.      P.  31.  No.  13  US. 
Actual  size. 


the  rock  had  been  first  broken  into  accidental  shape  and  size,  and 
such  pieces  best  adapted  for  chisels  were  then  selected  and  trimmed. 


263 

The  scrapers,  usually  made  of  milky  quartz,  found  in  abundance 
all  over  the  island,  are  sometimes  quite  well  chipped,  but  oftener 
simple  flakes. 

I  will  mention  here  that  we  detected  among  the  chisel-marks  on 
the  living  rock,  as  also  on  several  potsherds,  distinct  signs  of 
metallic  tools  having  been  used.  These  were  probably  of  iron 
and  like  those  which  we  frequently  found  in  the  burying-ground 
on  the  Isthmus. 

Figure  3  illustrates  a  chisel  of  slate,  half  its  natural  size,  and 
figure  4  a  scraper  made  of  quartz,  of  natural  size. 

Figure  5  represents  a  part  of  the  bluff  near  the  boat  landing, 

Fig.  5. 


Ledge  of  Steatite,  Santa  Catalina  Island,  showing  the  method  of  detaching  and  shaping 

the  pots. 

and  will  give  a  better  idea  of  how  the  rough  work  of  detaching 
the  rock  was  carried  on. 

After  the  pot-form  had  been  worked  out,  it  was  broken  from  the 
living  rock  by  working  under  it  and  by  the  gradual  pressure  of 
the  chisel  around  the  base.  The  detached  pot-boulder  was  next 
rounded  into  proper  form  ;  it  was  then  hollowed  out  until  a  certain 
thickness  of  the  pot  was  reached  ;  and  finall}-,  carefully  finished 
with  the  scraper.  As  the  thickness  of  the  olid  increases  towards 
the  bottom  —  it  usually  thickens  from  about  half  an  inch  at  the  rim 


264 

to  one  and  a  half  at  the  bottom  —  it  requires  skill  to  attain  this 
evenly.  No  mechanical  apparatus  was  used  for  this  purpose  (as 
shown  by  certain  irregularities  in  the  form  of  the  pot)  but  simply 
the  touch  of  both  hands  in  antiposition,  one  gliding  outside  the 
already  finished  surface  while  the  other  worked  inside  towards  the 
guiding  hand.  In  this  wise,  with  some  practical  experience,  a 
greater  accuracy  is  attainable  than  at  first  might  be  supposed, 
especially  if  the  work  proceeds  from  a  known  thickness  to  which 
reference  can  be  taken,  which  is  here  the  case  as  it  progressed  from 
the  rim. 

A  new  pot  is  without  polish,  and  has  only  the  smooth  surface 
imparted  by  the  scraper ;  while  those  which  had  been  in  use  at 
tained  frequently  a  polished  surface  by  wear,  which  the  soft  and 
greasy  nature  of  the  potstone  is  inclined  to  adopt. 

II.    THE  MORTAR. 

On  the  southwestern  shore,  near  the  southeast  end  of  San 
Clemente  island,  where  a  fair  landing  exists,  we  found  a  station 
prominently  located  on  a  shallow  dune,  about  a  mile  below  what 
is  known  as  Chinese  Point.  To  this  place  large  numbers  of 
beach-worn  boulders  of  basalt  of  different  sizes  were  brought, 
mostly  such  as  were  suitable  for  the  manufacture  of  mortars 
which  were  here  largely  made.  Some  of  the  rocks  were  broken  in 
the  rough  state,  in  the  attempt  to  split  off  a  section  of  the  globu 
lar  mass,  to  make  a  flat  surface  on  which  to  begin  the  excavation  ; 
Others,  of  a  more  convenient  semi-circular  form,  bore  marks  of  the 
chisel  as,  in  one  instance,  a  circle  outlining  the  intended  size  of 
the  basin  ;  some  broke  in  the  hands  of  the  worker  while  working 
out  the  basin,  and  one,  we  found,  was  abandoned  on  account  of 
a  flaw  in  the  rock.  The  work  of  shaping  the  stone  was  first  done 
with  the  hammer,  consisting  of  a  piece  of  hard  rock,  generally 
of  quartz,  of  about  a  pound  in  weight,  with  sharp  edges  and 
points.  Persistent  and  well  directed  blows  with  such  a  hammer, 
applied  either  directly  with  the  hand  or  attached  to  a  handle,  will 
detach  even  large  pieces  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  give  a  rough 
form,  if  the  tendenc}7  of  cleavage  is  properly  taken  into  considera 
tion  ;  while  the  more  exact  form,  and  a  smoother  surface,  is 
worked  in  the  way  the  serrated  hammer  of  the  modern  stone  cut 
ter  is  directed,  vertically  against  the  face.  The  basalt  rock,  all 


265 

though  very  hard,  is  of  a  crumbling  nature  and  will  granulate 
easily  under  a  pointed  hammer.  We  found,  therefore,  but  few 
chisels  in  the  workshops  of  Clemente  island,  and  these  were  evi 
dently  applied  more  for  working  out  the  basin,  when  the  hammer 
could  not  conveniently  be  used.  When  the  mortar  is  made  of 
sandstone,  which,  instead  of  being  brittle  like  the  basalt,  is  soft 
and  more  adhesive  or  tough,  I  believe  the  chisel  was  used  to  a 
greater  extent,  and  this  is  indicated  by  the  sharper  peck-marks. 

Judging  the  progress  of  work  by  the  advance  of  a  single  stroke 
of  the  hammer  or  chisel,  I  am  of  the  opinion,  a  neat  mortar  of 
common  dimensions  —  twelve  inches  in  diameter — should  not  have 
required  more  than  a  week's  work  ;  and  for  a  pot  even  less  time 
should  have  been  consumed  by  a  skilled  worker,  not  allowing  for 
the  detachment  of  the  pot-form  from  the  living  rock  which  must 
have  nearly  doubled  the  time. 


III.   WEIGHTS  FOR  DIGGING-STICKS. 

Tliese  implements,  —  as  are  so  many  others  that  have  a  hole,  a 
notch,  or  other  means  of  fastening  a  line, — -are  often  considered  as 
sinkers.  One  of  the  less  frequent  types  of  net  sinkers,  indeed, 
resembles  the  weight  for  a  digging-stick,  but  yet  there  is  as  much 
difference  between  the  two  as  between  a  mortar  and  an  olla.  The 
sinker  is  of  a  different  material ;  is  coarsely  finished  ;  the  hole  is 
much  smaller,  and  narrower  in  the  middle  ;  and  is  hardly  ever 
drilled,  or  finished  by  drilling,  but  simply  pecked.  My  first  im 
pression,  on  finding  these  perforated  stones,  was  that  they  were 
the  heads  of  war-clubs,  to  which  those  of  a  pear-shape  especially 
seem  to  answer.  l>y  examining  a  large  number  olf  fragments, 
however,  I  found  most  of  the  stone-rings  .had  been  broken  in  two, 
parallel  with  the  hole,  which  could  not  be  caused  by  the  side  pres 
sure  of  the  club,  but  by  a  wedge-like  action  against  the  inner 
sides.  The  suggestion  that  these  stones  were  weights  for.  digging- 
sticks,  such  as  are  still  in  use  among  the  Hottentots,  I  received 
from  an  aged  half-breed,  while  working  on  Santa  Cruz  island,  two 
years  ago,  and  I  have  since  become  convinced  that  such  was  their 
use.  If  we  examine  a  stone-ring  which  has  done  some  service,  we 
find  the  hole  shows  a  polish  and  fine  striae  running  lengthwise,  and 
wear  on  one  end  of  the  ring  imparted  by  the  hand  while  in  use  and 


266 


in  carrying  the  digging-stick  where  it  naturally  would  rest,  with 
its  projecting  stone  weight,  against  the  hand.  I  found  some  of 
the  weights  thus  deeply  worn,  and  by  mounting  one  on  a  proper 
stick  it  fitted  nicely  to  the  grasped  hand.  I  also  noticed  a  specimen, 
among  the  many  sent  to  the  Peabody  Museum,  in  which  the  hole 
had  been  enlarged  in  full  width  but  in  one  direction  only  —  making 
an  elliptic  hole  —  worn  by  the  digging-stick  while  worked,  when 
its  own  weight  could  only  act  against  the  sides  of  the  stick  corres 
ponding  to  the  flattened  ends  of  the  wooden  spade.  There  were 
two  methods  by  which  the  hole  in  the  stone  was  made,  both  of 


Fig.  6. 


"Weight  for  Digging-stick  from  Santa  Cruz  Island.    P.  M.  No.  9296.    Nat.  size. 

which  are  illustrated  by  numerous  specimens  in  the  collection.  In 
one  instance  the  weight, —  almost  exclusively  of  steatite,  but  occa 
sionally  of  a  harder  stone,  —  was  first  roughly  worked  into  the  de 
sired  ball  or  a  more  flattened  disk  ;  the  hole  was  then  chiselled  from 
both  sides  until  it  met ;  it  was  then  drilled  out  to  an  equal  width 
throughout ;  and  the  weight  was  finally  finished  by  working  the 
outside  in  a  symmetrical  form.  The  more  elaborate  weights,  how 
ever,  were  finished  in  outline  before  the  hole  was  bored.  The  hole 


267 


was  made,  no  doubt,  with  a  flint  point,  the  strive  are  deep  and  the 
width  of  an  unfinished  hole  decreases  towards  the  centre.  A  dril 
ling  apparatus  might  have  been  used,  for  the  streaks  of  the  drill 
are  well  defined  and  in  full  circle,  which  could  hardly  be  attained 

Fig.  7. 


Weight  for  Digging-stick  ft-om  San  Nicholas  Island.    P.  M.  No.  9353.    Nat.  size. 

by  turning  the  borer  simply  between  the  hands.     Figures  6  and 
7  represent  two  common  forms  of  these  weights. 

Among  the  weights  for  digging-sticks  we  find  many  of  small 
sizes  and  inferior  make,  which  could  not  have  been  of  any  practical 
use  for  this  purpose  and  often  deviating  so  much  in  form  as  to 
make  it  doubtful  if  they  were  designed  as  weights.  The  same 
deviation  from  the  practical  size  we  find  sometimes  among  mortars 
—  not  meaning  the  paint-cups  —  the  pestles,  and  frequently  among 
the  comales  (the  flat  stone  plates  for  baking  tortillas}  which  were 
formerly  extensively  in  use,  judging  by  the  many  specimens  col- 


268 

lected.     Such  articles  we  may  safely  bring  under  the  head  of  chil 
dren's  playthings,  in  whose  graves  they  are  usually  found. 

IV.   PIPES. 

Very  little  need  be  said  of  the  manufacture  of  this  article  which 
has  been,  in  the  form  common  on  this  coast,  a  mysterious  thing  to 
many,  and  was  usually  classed  among  the  nondescripts  of  the 
medicine-man,  wherewith,  it  was  thought,  he  practised  deception 
to  sick  believers.  The  pipe  is  a  funnel-shaped  tube  like  a  thick, 
enlarged,  modern  cigar-holder,  with  an  opening  usually  over  an 
inch  in  diameter  at  the  large  end,  and  narrowing  to  one-third  of  an 
inch  towards  the  other,  which  has  a  corresponding  decreased 
thickness. 

The  hole  was  drilled  from  both  ends,  but  only  to  a  short  distance 
from  the  smaller,  and  the  mouth  of  the  pipe  was  then  enlarged  by 
scraping  parallel  with  the  longer  axis.  For  a  mouth-piece,  which 
protrudes  about  an  inch,  a  piece  of  a  wing,  or  leg-bone,  of  some 
bird,  was  inserted  and  tightly  secured  with  asphaltum.  The  pipe 
was  usually  made  of  steatite  and  is  sometimes  neatly  finished. 
_  The  Klamaths  of  the  present  clay  use  a  pipe  of  similar  form  to 
those  found  in  the  graves,  and  still  smoke  the  native  tobacco,  Ni- 
cotiana  quadrivalvis,  which  I  found  to  be  a  sickening  narcotic.  It 
amused  me  to  see  an  Indian  bending  back  his  head  to  bring  the 
pipe  in  a  vertical  position,  so  as  not  to  lose  any  tobacco,  while 
taking  a  long  draught  which  he  inhales,  the  longer  to  enjoy  the 
short  opportunity,  as  the  pipe  must  be  passed  on. 


[Printed  at  the  SALEM  PRESS,  September,  1878.] 


